Circular paint masks?

Have you tried putting an X-Acto knife with a scalpel (rounded) type blade into a cheap school compass that holds common  pencils?

Tom T

Nope, haven't tried it yet. Found a circle cutter at the local arts & crafts store - cuts reasonable circles from 10mm to 150mm diameter. The thing seems OK for now - will have to get experience with it.

DoC  

There are also circle punches of various sizes at the craft stores...I spotted some that ranged from 1/4 inch to 2 inch. Otherwise a circle template and a sharp blade works too. In fact I use the circle template to do much of my roundel painting. Just work from the outer circle towards the center.

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

Otherwise a circle template and a sharp blade works too. In fact I use the circle template to do much of my roundel painting.

K.I.S.S.

Skip the masking tape step if you're doing wheels and simply paint the rubber rim then use the appropriately sized circle.

Now, if you're doing roundels as HH suggests, that a whole other ball of wax and I'll defer to anyone else.

For little circles, like 1/4" or smaller, and in particular wheel hubs, this works really well:

Paint it first, or leave it clear if its a port etc. Massage a big drop of Krystal Klear onto the spot with a toothpick and let it set level. It'll generally set down nice and round. Let it dry, paint over it and pop it off. I can paint landing gear all day that way. Elmers works ok too.